Tax at checkout

OvertheBrick

I just added a tax profile and I am not 100% sure I understand how it works

It seems that the tax is applied based on the account address not the actual shipping address. what happened to customer that ship to a different address that is not taxable ?

I also see discrepancy with prices advertised on other affiliate sites like "Wall of Bricks". They show without tax. When the user click on the link he will see a different one (the message "tax included" is small and not obvious) which might turn them off.

All that to say why can't we apply the tax only at checkout like most stores in the US (maybe an option if some country have other requirements) ?

Lawrence

In the tax profile you can choose whether you want it to be based upon the billing shipping address of the customer. There is no "account address". Third-party websites that link to Brick Owl show prices without tax, as tax is dependent upon the customer. Tax is applied at checkout.

OvertheBrick

I have it setup based on the shipping address.
What I meant by the "account address" is probably the shipping address on record (the one I saved in my profile).
But if I wanted to ship to a different address (without tax) I would still see taxed prices until I checkout.
Ideally I would like to see the item priced without tax and only apply the tax at checkout if needed (we could also show the tax in the cart based on the address on record, maybe even let the user edit the address in the cart).

Lawrence

You can change your country in the cart, or you can start going through the checkout process to set the address you want to use for that cart. I'm happy with the system assuming that you will use your normal address, unless you tell it otherwise, and basing the tax assumption on that information.

Teup

Ideally I would like to see the item priced without tax and only apply the tax at checkout if needed

In my opinion that'd be a very bad idea. That way items will seem cheap to me, I'll fill my cart, only to find out it's going to cost me a 21% extra. It also makes comparing unfair. It'd be unfair if you pick the cheapest store and then when you're done shopping discover it's not actually that cheap. A pricetag should describe what you need to pay for it in my opinion.


What would be nice though in the 'tax profile type' is a 3rd option: Keep prices uniform for all buyers. Currently it assumes you will always pass on the taxes to the buyer (either substracting it from the prices if you don't pay tax or add it when you do), but it would be nice if you could just keep the prices the same for all customers. That has my personal preference because right now I am getting loads of orders outside the EU (people for whom it is cheap) and very few inside the EU. It's difficult hitting that right supply-demand sweetspot with this price discrepancy. This is just a personal preference, and I know I could fix it by simply removing my tax setting completely, but I still think it would be a good addition.

OvertheBrick

@Teup

I think a lot has to do with country habits and legality.

Having spent the majority of my life in France it totally make sense there (and required I believe) to have the tax included in the price. People are used to it, the tax is very steep, is uniform within the country, every other store does it this way.

In the US this is the opposite. Tax is very different from State to State (if not district per district), it is much lower (if not 0 in some state) and people are used to the tax not being included.
Not a big deal for me and I can live with either option but I see how it could be a competitive disadvantage for US store.

Lawrence

@weberemmanuel that's how the system works here also. The tax profile system supports both the EU and the US different ways of doing things.